Category Archive

Last week, I commented on a noteworthy piece of Harvard President Drew Faust’s reasoning, from her statement rejecting the demands of Harvard’s fossil fuel divestment movement, about the hypocrisy of condemning fossil fuel companies while embracing and relying on their products. She wrote: Given our pervasive dependence on these companies for the energy to heat and light our buildings, to …

On this episode of Power Hour, Alex Epstein talks with Dr. Patrick Michaels about global warming and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Dr. Michaels is Director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute. He taught Environmental Science for 30 years at University of Virginia. He is a past President of the American Association …

// Last November, Harvard University held a referendum, initiated by the anti-fossil fuel activists of gofossilfree.org, on the question of whether the school should symbolically divest its endowment of any investments in fossil fuel companies, on grounds that “it’s wrong to profit from wrecking the climate.” 72% of students voted ‘yes.’ Last week, President Drew Faust announced that Harvard would …

On this episode of Power Hour, CIP Senior Fellow Dr. Eric Dennis returns to discuss the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) recently released Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), and how we should think about climate change. To learn more about Eric, go to http://industrialprogress.com/about. Download Episode 70 with Eric Dennis Subscribe to Power Hour on iTunes

I’m in the middle of rereading my favorite book, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Every time I read the book, I am amazed by how much it illuminates today’s controversies, even though Atlas Shrugged is a) over 50 years old and b) a novel. Consider the following passage, where industrialist-philosopher Francisco d’Anconia remarks to steel magnate Hank Rearden how dangerous the climate …

This week’s episode of Power Hour is a recent talk Alex Epstein gave to the Santa Monica Tea Party, on “How to Think About Global Warming.” Alex was originally invited to talk about “The Collapse of the Global Warming Hoax,” but he explained in the talk that “hoax” isn’t the word he would use to describe the phenomenon. Listen to …

On this week’s Power Hour, Alex Epstein talks with Amy Oliver Cooke, Director of the Independence Institute’s Energy Policy Center, about Obama’s nominee to head the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Ron Binz. If you’re not familiar with the FERC or Ron Binz, this is a must-listen. For more on Amy’s work, go to http://www.i2i.org/olivercooke.php. Download Episode 67 with Amy Oliver …

Yesterday, when reading a Rolling Stone feature on “Global Warming’s Denier Elite” (I was number 4) I noticed an embarrassingly crude scientific error. In an article condemning me and 9 other supporters of fossil fuel energy as scientific ignoramuses, the editors featured a picture of a coal plant emitting some smoky-looking substance described as “carbon emissions.” Problem: Carbon dioxide was not …

On this episode of Power Hour, Alex Epstein talks with Dr. David Kreutzer about fossil fuel policy, the ideas that have inspired it, and their effects. Dr. Kreutzer is a Research Fellow in Energy Economics and Climate Change at the Heritage Foundation. You can learn more about him and his work at http://www.heritage.org/about/staff/k/david-kreutzer. Download Episode 65 with David Kreutzer Subscribe …

Yesterday, Forbes published my new piece “With the Tesla Model S, Elon Musk Has Created a Nice Nice Fossil Fuel Car.” Several members of the Tesla forum disagreed emphatically, with a range of arguments ranging from technical (I allegedly neglected the issue of “energy efficiency”) to emotional (I am “another hater”). Overall, I thought that the responses were a microcosm of …